


High Heels, Mistletoe, and Surgical Stitches

by rhiannonhero



Series: First Holidays Series [2]
Category: As the World Turns
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-26
Updated: 2011-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-15 02:59:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/156332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhiannonhero/pseuds/rhiannonhero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>T?WT? of course.  Thanks to <span><a href="http://peggin.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://peggin.livejournal.com/"><b>peggin</b></a></span> and <span><a href="http://users.livejournal.com/_alicesprings/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://users.livejournal.com/_alicesprings/"><b>_alicesprings</b></a></span> for the beta read throughs and suggestions!<br/></p>
    </blockquote>





	High Heels, Mistletoe, and Surgical Stitches

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Peggin and Susanderavish](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Peggin+and+Susanderavish).



> T?WT? of course. Thanks to [](http://peggin.livejournal.com/profile)[**peggin**](http://peggin.livejournal.com/) and [](http://users.livejournal.com/_alicesprings/profile)[**_alicesprings**](http://users.livejournal.com/_alicesprings/) for the beta read throughs and suggestions!  
> 

Faith came down the stairs at the farm carefully. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was still getting used to wearing high heels and was pretty unsteady on her feet. She was seventeen now and allowed to wear them, but while most girls her age had been playing dress up in their mommy’s clothes from the time they were really little, Faith had spent those same years in the stables, mucking out stalls, riding horses, and generally wearing nothing but work boots.

Now, though, she was all grown up. She’d finally thinned out, and grown breasts, just like her mother always said she would. But instead of these developments being the burden she’d imagined when she was a kid, she had to admit, it was all pretty cool. Especially the way that Parker looked at her now, like he actually saw her as a woman and not just as a kind of lame playmate.

She stopped at the last step and opened the door to the kitchen, stepping down to the relative safety of the flat floor. She grinned at the expression on Luke’s face when he looked up from whatever paper he and Reid were going over together at the kitchen table.

“Wow,” Luke said. “You look…all grown up, Faithy.”

Reid looked up, but his expression didn’t really change. Faith couldn’t tell if he liked her Winter Formal dress or not, but she interpreted the lack of negative commentary from him as a win. It had taken some getting used to, but over the last few months Faith had come to understand that even when Reid was on his best behavior and even if he pretty much liked you, there was no guarantee that something rude wouldn’t come out of his mouth.

She twirled for Luke and said, “Grandmother got it for me at _Meredith’s_.”

Reid whistled then as an obvious commentary on the cost of the dress, and Faith fought the urge to childishly stick her tongue out at him.

Instead she said, “Oh, you’re familiar with the place? Don’t they only sell girls’ things? Do I even want to know?”

Reid appeared pleased by her innuendo and said only, “I was buying a present.”

“If you say it was for my brother, I’ll have to kill you, because then I will throw up all over my dress, and it was a really expensive dress.”

Reid smirked. “No. It was for _Katie_.”

Luke was watching them with a smile, his eyes darting back and forth, and Faith was happy to see him in such good spirits. She couldn’t remember the last time Luke had been in such a consistently good place. He’d had spells, sure, when things had been going well with Noah, but for the most part, he’d always been in the midst of a crisis, and she hated to see her big brother suffer. He always tried to take such good care of her, and of the younger kids, and she wanted so much for him to be happy.

She remembered the first time she met Reid and understood that he was involved with Luke. She’d been confused. Reid had seemed so different from Noah. He didn’t talk to Faith, or act like she could be his newfound little sister. In fact, for the most part, Reid didn’t seem interested in Faith at all. And, at first, that had really kind of put her off of him, because the least he could do, in her opinion, was to _try_ to make her like him, but it was like he didn’t even care.

Eventually, though, she realized that the reason Reid didn’t seem that interested in her was because he was _totally_ interested in her brother. There was nothing that Luke said or did that Reid wasn’t absorbed by, and even when he disagreed with Luke, and made no bones about his disagreement, he still seemed to take in everything that Luke said with an attention to detail that made Faith a little envious.

“When are the rugrats getting here?” Reid asked.

“Grandmother should be dropping them off any minute,” Faith said. “Let me guess: you’re totally excited to be babysitting them tonight, right?”

Reid pulled a face and muttered, “Not exactly how I’d planned my only night off before Christmas, but….”

“Reid,” Luke said, in slightly chastising tone. “I know this isn’t what we planned, but…there wasn’t anything I could do. Don’t be mad.”

“I’m not,” Reid said, looking confused by Luke’s concern. “This kind of thing happens. I believe it’s this thing called ‘Life’. Gets in the way and you deal.”

Luke practically glowed at Reid, and Faith smiled. She loved that her brother was so in love, even if she didn’t understand why he liked Reid so much, and sometimes she still kind of missed Noah.

“At least John gave you Christmas Eve off, right? We’ll have a nice night together then.”

Reid shrugged. “I’m still on call, but we’ll see how it goes.”

Luke stood up, crossed over to Faith, kissed her cheek, and said, “You look really beautiful.”

“Thanks, I hope Parker agrees.”

Luke chuckled. “And you know what? I hope he doesn’t. He should keep his hands off my little sister.”

Faith hit him on the chest, and then hugged him close. He smelled like peppermint from the candy cane he’d been chewing on when he first showed up with Reid, and the aftershave he’d been using for a few months now. She’d asked him about it when he first started wearing it, and he said that he’d gotten rid of the old stuff because it had been a gift from Noah, and he thought it was time to move on. Faith liked the new stuff, even if she did kind of miss the familiarity of the old.

Luke’s phone rang and he pulled out of her hug to dig it out of his jeans pocket. He stared at the caller i.d. for a moment, and then with a glance toward Reid, he answered the call, saying, “Noah? Are you okay?”

***

“No, Noah. No, he’s not. Well, yeah. Reid _is_ rude, condescending, and arrogant, but he would _never_ hurt me,” Luke said into the phone, pacing back and forth through the kitchen.

Faith watched him with wide, worried eyes. Her dress for the Winter Formal was a little tight across the chest, and she had a hard time catching a good deep breath when her heart rate was up listening to her brother talk to Noah. She darted a glance over to Reid who sat at the kitchen table as still as a stone, watching Luke talk on the phone and pace.

“Look, Noah, I don’t have to justify this to you. We’ve discussed it all before. Nothing has changed. I don’t understand why you returned my call to begin with if this is still how you feel.”

Faith sat down next to Reid, careful not to muss the skirt of her dress, and said, “Why do you let him talk to him? He just gets upset.”

Reid shrugged, but the movement was so tight and small that it was barely noticeable. “I’m not his keeper. He has to do what he has to do.”

“But does he have to talk to Noah?”

Reid’s fingers toyed with the seams of the red and green holiday placemat on the table in front of him, and he continued to watch Luke carefully, his eyes following every gesture that Luke made.

Faith wondered what it would be like to be watched that way, to be really seen the way that Reid saw Luke. Faith loved Parker, but sometimes it felt like he was permanently distracted. Half of the time, she wasn’t even sure that he listened to her, much less really saw her.

“When is he going to get off the phone?” she asked.

“When is your cousin coming to take you to the Prom?” Reid countered.

“It’s Winter Formal, and he’s not my cousin.”

“You say tomato, I say tomahto,” Reid muttered, his eyes never once leaving Luke who was still talking to Noah.

“He should be here any minute,” Faith said.

“You said that about the kids, too, and they still haven’t shown up,” Reid said.

Luke stopped rubbed a hand over his face and said, “Listen, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Noah, I want to be friends, but you can’t keep dogging Reid like this.”

Faith could hear Reid’s teeth grinding together, but he continued to remain motionless, not interfering in Luke’s call.

The door to the back opened, and Parker walked in looking handsome in his tuxedo. Faith stood and she was proud when his eyes lit up as they landed on her. She was going to have to thank Grandmother even more for the new dress. It brought out the green flecks in her eyes, and she knew it made her chest look amazing. Even if it was a little hard to breathe in it. She just hoped there wouldn’t be any fast dances. Slow dancing she could handle, but if Parker wanted to rock out, she was doomed.

“You look beautiful,” Parker said, and his hands were so warm wrapped around hers, and he pulled her up for a kiss.

“I never said that!” Luke exclaimed.

Parker pulled back from Faith to look over at her brother who was moving his hands animatedly. Faith watched as Parker also took in Reid sitting at the table. Reid inclined his head toward Parker, but then went back to watching Luke.

“So, what’s up with the fam?” Parker asked. “I thought your mom and dad would be here to take pictures and stuff. My mom was kind of counting on it actually, since her camera is broken or something.”

Faith rolled her eyes. “They’re snowed in over at Bay City. Of course. They never manage to make it to anything important that I do. It’s, like, not even an hour’s drive, and they get trapped over there picking up a Christmas present for Ethan.”

Luke sighed heavily, rubbed his fingers over his eyes, and said, “I can’t…no, I _won’t_ keep apologizing forever.”

Parker looked over toward Luke again and said, “Yeesh. Who’s he talking to?”

“Noah,” Faith said.

Listening to Luke talk for the last ten minutes, Faith couldn’t believe that she used to like the guy. Of course, all she’d known of him was the smiles and the small gifts he’d sometimes tuck away for her when he went places, like when he went to Florence and the time he went to L.A.; though, that had been really weird, because that had been when they thought her father had died, and she always thought that Noah should’ve been right here in Oakdale with the rest of their family.

Luke threw his hands up. “It’s not his fault, Noah. It’s…it’s no one’s fault, okay? No, of course I’m not blaming you. It was…a difficult situation, and you were pushing me away so hard. No – no, you aren’t pushing me away now. But it’s too late, Noah. It’s been too late.”

Glancing at Reid, who was still watching over Luke with a restrained, protective gaze, she was pretty certain that in the same situation, the only thing that would drag Reid away from Luke’s side was a dying patient and the Hippocratic Oath, and even that wasn’t a done deal, because Reid didn’t walk away from Luke like Noah did whenever the going got tough.

Parker said, “I thought they broke up like, I don’t know, almost a year ago.”

“Yeah, so did we,” Faith said. “And yet the drama goes on. And on.”

“And on,” Reid contributed in a low voice.

Faith turned to Parker, and pulled him away to the corner of the kitchen, and held tightly to his hands. “Anyway, so Mom and Dad are stuck in Bay City, and Grandmother’s heading off with Dr. Dixon to some tropical vacation for Christmas. So Luke and Reid are going to watch the kids tonight.” Her eyes sparkled as she grinned up at him, and she whispered, “I’m pretty sure that they won’t be too strict about curfew.”

Parker's eyes twinkled with interest and anticipation, and his gaze strayed down to her breasts. She felt a spark inside, a rush of want, and she hoped that she was right, that they could get away from the Winter Formal long enough to possibly find a place to be alone, because she wanted Parker so much and she knew that he wanted her, too.

Luke muttered a sad, “Goodbye, Noah,” and hung up the phone, just as the back door burst open, and Ethan and Natalie came rushing in, followed by Grandmother who had been taking care of them for the day.

“Luke, darling, what’s wrong?” Grandmother asked as soon as she took one look at him.

If he didn’t look so miserable, Faith would have been annoyed. Grandmother never bothered to hide the fact that Luke was her favorite, but was it too much to ask for her to notice how amazing Faith looked in the dress first thing? Except that it was, because Luke did look like he might cry. Faith glanced over at Reid who was still watching Luke with a deadly serious expression.

“It’s nothing, Grandmother,” Luke said, and hugged her, before turning to Ethan and Natalie and sweeping them up with a big, not-too-fake, “Hey, guys! I’m so glad to see you! We’re gonna have so much fun!”

“Reid!” Natalie yelled, and took off across the kitchen, to throw herself into Reid’s arms.

Faith didn’t get it at first, but Natalie totally adored Reid, and had thrown Noah over for him rather easily. When she’d asked Natalie about it, she’d said that it was because Reid was cool, and then she’d mentioned cake. Faith didn’t know when, but apparently Reid had bribed Natalie with cake at some point, and now the kid was a goner for him.

Reid hugged Natalie in return, and Faith was kind of surprised. He gave Natalie a warm, half-smile, and then his attention was back on Luke again.

“Grandmother, doesn’t Faith look beautiful in the dress you bought her?” Luke asked, leaning back against the door leading to the upstairs.

“What? Who? Faith?” Grandmother turned then and saw her. “Faith, my goodness girl, look at you.” She gasped a little and clutched a hand dramatically to her chest. “So beautiful. So grown up.” She turned her attention to Parker. “Now, young man, you be a gentleman this evening, do you hear me?”

Faith noticed Reid standing up, and watched him move toward Luke. He grabbed Luke’s chin, and kissed him. Luke was so surprised, that he nearly lost his balance, until Reid grabbed him, and held him steady, kissing him a little harder, and then pulling back.

Luke stared at him, eyes wide, and mouth open.

Reid pointed up and said, “Mistletoe,” and then casually stopped to grab a cookie from the jar, before going to his seat at the table, leaving Luke looking flabbergasted and definitely a lot happier than he had only moments before.

Faith bit her lip to hold back her smile.

“Now, now, Dr. Oliver,” Lucinda chuckled. “It appears I was scolding the wrong man.”

Reid gave a soft, close-lipped smile.

Ethan exclaimed, “Ew! Why do you _keep_ kissing _my brother_!”

Reid looked at him, bit into his cookie, and said, “Because I like kissing your brother.”

“Ew!” Ethan said. “But he’s gross!”

Luke looked amused by this comment and asked, “What’s gross about me, E?”

“You’re my _brother_.” Ethan then seemed tired of the conversation and said, “Can I have a cookie, too?”

***

After Grandmother left in a waft of perfume and blown kisses, Parker looked at his watch and said, “We need to go! We’re going to be late if we don’t leave soon.”

“But no one took our picture!” Faith said.

Luke pulled out his phone and said, “Sorry, Faithy. This will have to do. Smile.”

Just as Luke took the picture, Ethan barreled through the kitchen, high already from his sugar rush, and slammed into Faith and Parker. Faith lost her balance in her heels, and grabbed hold of Parker to keep from going down. Parker took a step back, and somehow brought his foot down on the hem of Faith’s dress. The sound of the rip was echoed by the sound of her screech, and Ethan tearing off into the other room wailing.

Faith couldn’t believe it, but somehow she managed not to cry, so her make-up wasn’t ruined, and she found herself five minutes later in her bedroom upstairs alone with Reid.

“Just take it off,” Reid was saying. “It’ll be easier to sew that way.”

“You do realize that the fact that you can sew makes you, like, the uber-gay,” Faith said, not taking off the dress.

“Believe me, there are other things that make me the uber-gay,” Reid said seriously. “Now. The dress. Take it off.”

Faith started to step into her bathroom when Reid said, “Oh for heaven’s sake. I’m a doctor. And you have nothing I haven’t seen a thousand times before. And, as you said, I’m uber-gay. Not interested. Get the dress off so I can fix it.”

Earlier, in the kitchen, when Reid had said he could fix her dress, Luke had laughed and said, “With what? Surgical glue?”

Reid’s reply had been, “That’s not a bad idea. But _no_ , I’m a neurosurgeon. I can figure something out.”

Faith handed Reid the needle and thread and then asked him to unzip the back of her dress. She stepped out of it, and gave it to him. He didn’t even look her body over once. She sat down next to him on the bed in her bra, panties, and tights, watching closely as he began.

One stitch in he said, “Scissors,” and she passed them to him in confusion. She couldn’t sew to save her life, but she’d watched Emma do it, and she knew it was usually a long, fluid motion.

Reid snipped the thread and made another, perfect, surgical-looking stitch next to the first. Snipped the thread, and did it again. Fifty-nine stitches later, the rip in her dress was fixed, and from the outside, totally invisible.

“There,” Reid said, handing it to her.

“You’re awesome,” Faith said, sliding the dress back on, and turning for him to zip it up.

“Yeah. I am,” Reid said, but she heard the undercurrent of humor to his voice, and that, along with her perfectly repaired gown, made her kind of want to grab him and kiss his cheek.

So, she did.

Reid looked terrified. “Slow down, missy. I don’t kiss on the first date.”

Faith smirked and shook her head at him. “Oh, shut up. You liked it.”

Reid rolled his eyes, looked her over appraisingly, and then stood up, opened her closet, and grabbed the white crocheted shawl that Emma had made for her. He tossed it over Faith’s shoulders, covering her cleavage.

“I’m not wearing this. It messes up my dress,” Faith said.

“Better that than ending up a baby mama at your age,” Reid said, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Is this your way of telling me that you care about me?”

“No. This is my way of telling you _don’t get pregnant._

Faith grinned. “You’re sweet.”

“Uh. No, I’m not. I think you’ve confused me with someone else.”

Faith followed Reid out of the room, and down the hall. “Oh, come on, hasn’t Luke ever told you that you’re sweet? Because I bet you’re really sweet to him.”

“He’s told me lots of things about me, but that’s not one of them.”

“Oh, really?”

Reid counted out on his fingers. “Amazing. Brilliant. Fantastic. Dedicated. Smart. Genius. Stuff not fit for your ears. But not sweet. Never sweet.”

“Okay,” Faith said, and she shook her head at him, laughing. “Whatever.”

“Oh!” Reid said like he’d remembered something important. “He said I was funny. Funny once. Sweet never.”

Down the stairs again, slowly, in order not to trip and ruin the night once and for all, Faith followed Reid into the kitchen.

“The princess is ready for her carriage,” Reid said to Parker, grabbing yet another cookie from the jar. “Please, whisk her away.”

Luke had settled the kids down in the living room with some cookies and a t.v. show, and was dusting off his hands when he came into the kitchen again.

“Listen, don’t miss curfew,” Luke said. “I might not be Mom and Dad, but I can be the heavy.”

Faith rolled her eyes at him, and he gave her a hilariously stern look.

Luke took a few more pictures of them with his phone, and sent one to their parents by text, then he kissed Faith goodbye.

She had just gotten into Parker’s car when she remembered that she had told Amy Darcy that she’d bring a black clutch purse for her to borrow for the night.

“Just one minute, I promise!” Faith said, jumping back out of the car and rushing toward the house.

She had the kitchen door half open, when she stopped. Luke was clinging to Reid, and Reid was rubbing his back, and whispering something in his ear.

“It’s not that,” Luke said. “I _know_ that. I just…I miss him. And I wish things could be different.”

Reid released his hold on Luke long enough to grab his chin, gaze into his face, and kiss his lips again. Luke melted against him, and things were getting a little heated when Natalie appeared saying, “We want popcorn!”

Luke pulled away from Reid, cleared his throat, and said, “Popcorn. On it.”

Faith sighed, and walked back to Parker’s truck. She climbed in and slammed the door shut.

“Where’s the purse?” Parker asked.

Faith let out a long breath and leaned her head back against the seat of the car. “It’s too much trouble to get it. Let’s just go now.”

“What do you mean, too much trouble?”

“I just mean…my brother’s really happy, you know? And Reid loves him. Totally loves him.”

Parker started the car, and looked over his shoulder as he backed out. “Yeah? And?”

“And I think that Noah might’ve been kind of a douche.”

“What?”

“So I’ll just tell Amy that I forgot it. She’ll get over it after a while.”

“Okay, then,” Parker said, obviously confused. “So…we’re off to Winter Formal. Did I tell you that you look beautiful?”

Faith grinned and took Parker’s hand. He had told her, yes, but it didn’t hurt to hear it again.

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally posted at [](http://community.livejournal.com/noah_who/profile)[**noah_who**](http://community.livejournal.com/noah_who/) for the Douchefest 2010 challenge. The original post can be found [HERE.](http://community.livejournal.com/noah_who/19404.html)


End file.
